Happy April Fools
by CoolCoke
Summary: Just a little funny thingy that I cooked togehter for one of my favorite holidays. Neal Caffry has a visit for April Fools. NO SLASH


It was ridiculous, really. Neal Caffrey being afraid? What? He was fierce, strong (not that bad looking either), altogether _gifted_, he shouldn't be afraid of something small as this! Fear was almost unknown to him, and he wasn't afraid of anything, his cons was so foolproof, that he rarely felt fear for the one he tried to con.

But then again, _what was he thinking?_ Neal tried to go back in time and remind himself again why he did this stupidity, this _idiotic thing_! It didn't take him long time to figure out the answer.

Yes, the visit of five very good, very fierce, very strong, gifted con artists he got yesterday. Exactly that.

He and Sophie knew each other from the time Neal tried to steal a music box with Alex (although she went by the name of Melissa then), and the rest had just tagged along her on her visit, like lost puppies. Neal had a lot of fun talking to Parker, though (he'd only read about her, and honestly, she was brilliant), and Mozzie was all fascinated by Hardison's magic by the screen, while Nathan Ford emptied Neal's fine Irish whisky, and Eliot tried to get the bottle out of his hand, unsuccessful. Weird, considering the guy killed people for a living (Neal had managed to believe Sophie when he said he was harmless). Neal guessed he respected the man enough to not break his wrist.

But that wasn't what scared Neal the most. Because when the whisky was empty, he and Sophie had sat down on his patio, looking over the city and talked about how things were going with him and the FBI. And then Sophie (who by the way had gotten a little bit too much wine and whisky in) had come up with the perfect prank for April Fools (the next day, which technically was today, before the clock showed 2am when they finally got outside).

"You should totally prank your handler!"

No. That was Neal's first impulse. Playing with Peter, that was like putting a bone just as high for the evil Rottweiler not to get it and stay in its cage to see if the dog would start ripping your flesh apart when it understood what you'd done.

Neal wasn't stupid, he repeated his opinion for himself and for Sophie again and again. But, the evil was there, and it crept up on him with the help of Sophie's conning tongue, until his eyes narrowed, and he muttered "fine," just to get her to shut up.

She gathered the team in an instant, and they all did their part, all humming and laughing and smiling all the time like small kids being excited for setting up a trap. Neal even had a moment when he actually believed what Mozzie said about drinking Aging-Backwards potion that time in Paris, just to get an explanation for the four people acting like they were twelve again, no five. Nathan Ford managed to keep himself calm enough to have a decent conversation slash explanation about their nature and so on, which was quite admirable, seeing as he had swallowed down half a bottle of pure alcohol.

Neal stopped taking to him when he joined the so-called "fun" and came up with the worst punch-line ever, "Let's go steal an April Fool's joke," which apparently was a pun the rest of the crew was used to.

Neal was surprised how well they worked together. They were better than him and Peter, all knowing their part (even though the prank just needed Hardison and Parker, they were all there to see the bird fly, with plans going up and down the entire alphabet, like Eliot hitting down the entire FBI staff to get to Parker, and so on). Behind Neal's worries and fears, he had to say he admired the teams work. They all had their differences, but worked them together, instead of Neal conning himself in and out of the suspects inner circle, while Peter shouted disapproving words into his ear.

But he really regretted the temptation now, as he walked into the high rise building in the middle of New York City. He cast another casual glance at the anklet, an anklet that showed a red light, instead of the green he was used to. It had been an easy job for Hardison to hack into the Marshalls office to make the anklet turn itself off (come on, the guy started hacking FBI servers when he was 12), but it was honestly scary to not have it as an alibi for eventual crimes that would happen that night.

Neal shook his head. Peter was not going to put him into prison for this, he got away with almost shooting a federal agent with a smack on his fingers, this was a notch less serious. This was fun!

They'd even wired him with one of their earplugs, and had him on speaker to get everything that was said in the building. Yes, this was going to be fun. Neal started to convince himself and felt his confidence grow a little, and lived on it. He put on his best smile, and walked into the elevator.

As the numbers above him just increased (2-3-4-5), Neal made up scenarios about how the office was going to look like when he arrived at 21th. Pure chaos, with agents rushing to and from the copy machine, trying to make a file? Peter sitting motionless on his desk, just looking at nothing?

"It's all quiet, Neal, just walk in with that cocky smirk of yours and everything will be fine." Neal heard Hardison's voice in his ear, and started to wonder if a) only using first names was a leverage thing, and b) that thing he had in his ear could read his mind too. But no, that was ridiculous, close to Mozzie-paranoia.

Then Neal moved from what Hardison had said and to what he meant with those words. He had hacked into the security feeds, of course he had. Neal kept himself from sighing; they would probably hear that too. They was all defiantly sitting there, with it all pulled up on a huge flat screen, like some big football-match they wanted to see. For them, it was just a game. For Neal… What was it for Neal? He had fun with it, he did. But there could be consequences. Neal didn't like to gamble with his life in or out of prison.

"Can't you feel it, Neal?" Parkers voice entered his ear too, almost like a whisper (where was she that needed whispering?), and in the middle of everything, yes, Neal could feel it. The excitement of pushing things _just across _the line of right and good, it was a wonderful feeling, a feeling that could only be compared with one other. Good, old fashion conning.

It was just the part when Peter would give him that _look_ Neal didn't like. The disappointed look, the _I thought you were better than this _look, the look that made Neal go back to when he was five, and Ellen would look down at him, and the wallet he stole from the boy next door.

The look that Neal knew, at once he got it, that his handler was going to put him through a long moral speech, a speech that always ended with some kind of threat, that next time, Neal _would be_ put in prison for good. The problem was that Peter knew, and Neal knew, that it was an almost empty threat. Almost.

But; Neal pushed it away, because this was _fun_, this was just a little prank, innocent and angelic. This was healthy, and even just that little part of reckless he needed to keep his day interesting. And, it _was _April Fools!

Neal saw the numbers go past. 12, 13, 14. "What if Peter had come in with me?" He asked, imagining the crew's disappointment when he ruined their prank with an idiotic amusement growing in his chest.

"Oh, we made sure of that," Hardison replied, and Neal could _hear_ his smile. "We checked the feeds, and you're a little late anyways."

"How is his reaction?" Neal was partially surprised by the excitement in his own voice.

"Why ruin the surprise?" Four voices he recognized as Parker, Sophie, Hardison and Eliot answered in unison. Eliot, by the way, found this very funny, after some "talking it over" with Hardison ("When, Eliot, d'ya get the chance to con a fed and get away with it!"). Neal was a little sour because he suddenly had no-one on his side anymore, because Moz went home before he planning started (Neal was positive his partner-in-crime would be at his side, paranoid as he was).

DING! Neal saw the door opening, and turned on his bright con-smile. Action.

The office looked normal at first, there was agents sitting by their desks, and there was agents walking to and from the archives, and there was agents chatting by the coffee mug, just like another normal day. Neal made his gaze go right up to the office in front, Peters. He could hear snickering in his left ear.

Peter was sitting bowed over something, very likely to be the note Parker left there yesterday night. Neal's gaze ended up on something black and blonde in the left corner with the shape of a head.

"Parker, why are you here?" He asked through the corner of his mouth, as he placed the fedora on his desk, just like any other normal day.

"Why miss all the fun?" She asked innocently, and again the thought hut Neal that he was the one having the less fun with this prank, along with the thought that retorical questions had to be a Leverage thing. He continued walking up to the office, but stopped when he saw the dumbfounded faces of Jones and Diana. His smirk widened when he looked at them, until their faces turned to realization, and then identical smiles with his.

He took the steps one at the time, enjoyed the freedom that was no Peter Burke yelling at him. He looked over at his handler typing something on his computer without even looking up and still studying what had to be the note.

"Now, Neal," Hardison's voice commanded, and Neal followed his lead, and knocked on the door that lead into Peters office.

His partner looked up first, and then let his eyes narrow into tiny slices, before his eyes widened in disbelief. Neal smiled even widely, as Hardison's voice once again sounded over the earbud. "Now."

"Happy April Fools, Peter." Neal said, as he knew Peters screen, and every screen on every desk behind him In the rest of the office turned black with the writing "HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!" in green all over it.

His ear exploded with the others laughter, and Neal had to hold back the smile too, as his handler looked up and down from Neal, to the computer screen to the note reading:

_Dear Peter_

_I'm going after the Monet in Paris  
Thanks for nothing  
Bonne Journée_

Totally worth the_ look_.


End file.
